Obama names Clinton as top diplomat

ArticleData Array ( [Article] => Array ( [article_id] => 1001184 [headline] => Obama names Clinton as top diplomat [abstract] => Barack Obama nominated Hillary Clinton to be his "tough", "smart" secretary of state and his former foe vowed to give her all to steer America through a perfect storm of global crises.
[keywords] => Obama, foreign, team, bill [content] =>

Barack Obama nominated Hillary Clinton to be his "tough", "smart" secretary of state and his former foe vowed to give her all to steer America through a perfect storm of global crises.
   
Debuting his new and heavy-hitting national security team at a Chicago press conference cloaked in symbolism, Obama said Defence Secretary Robert Gates would stay on and tasked him with a fresh mission -- ending the war in Iraq.
   
While stressing the importance of diplomacy, Obama struck hawkish notes which may discomfort some of his more dovish backers, warning the United States should keep the world's strongest military and would chase down terrorists.
   
"In this uncertain world, the time has come for a new beginning, a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century," Obama said, days after the Mumbai terror attacks sparked a fierce new foreign crisis.
   
Obama also named former NATO commander and marine general James Jones to be his national security adviser in a foreign policy line-up rich in global experience and wise in the ways of brutalback corridor Washington politics.
   
The new team will take the reins in January in a world wracked by tumult, and must get US troops home from Iraq, deal with Iran's nuclear drive, and mitigate deteriorating conditions in the Afghan war.
   
They must confront a resurgent Russia, repair tattered US ties abroad, and target global warming efforts, while the cascading financial crisis threatens to further destabilise the fragile world security environment.
   
The president-elect dismissed the sharp sniping of the Democratic primary campaign, when he and the former first lady both mocked the other's foreign policy credentials, saying the crossfire exaggerated their differences.
   
Obama noted Clinton, now in the latest political reinvention of her and husband Bill Clinton's rollercoaster political ride, had been a "tough campaign opponent" drawing a rueful smile from the New York senator.
   
"She's an American of tremendous stature who will have my complete confidence, who knows many of the world's leaders, who will command respect in every capital," Obama said.

Clinton vowed she would give "this assignment, your administration and my country, my all" and she and Obama walked off  the stage after the 50 minute press conference with their arms around one another.
   
The former first lady said she would ignite new momentum in US diplomacy after the frayed alliances and recriminations of George W Bush's presidency.

"The American people have demanded not just a new direction at home, but a new effort to renew America's standing in the world as a force for positive change," she said.

Gates will stay on at the Pentagon to give US war policy continuity with more than 150,000 troops locked in battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I will be giving Secretary Gates and our military a new mission as soon as I take office, responsibly ending the war in Iraq through a successful transition to Iraqi control," said Obama, who is to be inaugurated on January 20.
   
"As Bob (Gates) said not too long ago, Afghanistan is where the war on terror began, and it is where it must end."
   
Obama also sent a clear signal to US foes that his well-known opposition to the Iraq war would not mean he would hesitate to commit military force if US interests were threatened.

"To ensure prosperity here at home and peace abroad, we all share the belief we have to maintain the strongest military on the
planet," Obama said.

Obama introduced his foreign policy adviser Susan Rice, who has a hawkish view on using force to halt genocide, as the next US permanent representative to the United Nations and former justice department official Eric Holder as Attorney General.
   
Arizona governor Janet Napolitano was meanwhile named Homeland Security chief, at a press conference in which Obama was flanked by his new team, against a backdrop of American flags.

The president-elect was careful not to intervene in ongoing US diplomatic efforts to quell tensions in South Asia following last week's Mumbai rampage which killed more than 170 people including six Americans.
   
But he said he had been repeatedly briefed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who heads to India this week, and had spoken to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the weekend.

"We cannot tolerate a world where innocents are being killed by extremists," Obama said.
   
"We have to bring the full force of our power, not only military but diplomatic and political, to deal with the threats.
   
"Terror cannot be contained by borders. Last week we were reminded of the threat once again."
   
"In the world we seek, there's no place for those who kill innocent civilians to advance hateful extremism," he added.

[start_date] => 02 December 2008 | 06:30:18 AM [comments_allowed] => 0 [source] => AFP [commentCount] => 0 [video] => [image] => Array ( [caption] => Hillary Clinton has been nominated as US secretary of state by Barack Obama. (Getty) [useRegularImage] => 1 [media_library_id] => 52697 [site_id] => 1 [media_library_group_id] => 0 [media_usage_id] => 0 [filename] => site_1_rand_1243330961_hillary_clinton_flag_2102_b_getty.jpg [title] => hillary_clinton_flag_2102_B_getty_1243330961 [description] => file:site_1_rand_1243330961_hillary_clinton_flag_2102_b_getty.jpg [type] => [height] => 338 [width] => 450 [source] => [video_hi] => [video_lo] => [section] => [display_order] => 0 [create_date] => 2008-12-02 06:36:57 [active] => 1 [media_usage] => Article Large [usageWidth] => 300 [usageHeight] => 225 ) [imagePath] => http://media.sbs.com.au/news/upload_media/ [audio] => [reporter] => [relatedLinks] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 1001186 [label] => Line-up of Barack Obama's governing team [display_order] => 1 [type] => Article ) [1] => Array ( [id] => 1001038 [label] => Clinton-slamming Obama adviser rehired [display_order] => 2 [type] => Article ) [2] => Array ( [id] => 1000946 [label] => 'New beginning' promised in Thanksgiving address [display_order] => 3 [type] => Article ) [3] => Array ( [id] => 1000919 [label] => Obama 'too busy' to think about safety [display_order] => 4 [type] => Article ) [4] => Array ( [id] => 1000897 [label] => Obama vows 'help is on the way' [display_order] => 5 [type] => Article ) [5] => Array ( [id] => 1000874 [label] => Charitable Obama keeps Santa under wraps [display_order] => 6 [type] => Article ) [6] => Array ( [id] => 1000745 [label] => Obama to keep Gates as defence secretary [display_order] => 7 [type] => Article ) ) [relatedArticles] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [article_id] => 1001186 [headline] => Line-up of Barack Obama's governing team [abstract] => Below is the line-up of the incoming governmental team so far nominated or appointed by president-elect Barack Obama and vice-president-elect Joe Biden.
[content] =>

Below is the line-up of the incoming governmental team so far nominated or appointed by president-elect Barack Obama and vice-president-elect Joe Biden.
  

Nominated to be confirmed by the US Senate:
   Secretary of State:                                                               Hillary Clinton
   Defense Secretary:                                                             Robert Gates
   Treasury Secretary:                                                            Timothy Geithner
   Attorney General:                                                                Eric Holder
   Homeland Security Secretary:                                         Janet Napolitano
   UN Ambassador:                                                               Susan Rice
  

 

Appointed:
   National Security Adviser:                                                  General James Jones
   Chief of Staff:                                                                        Rahm Emanuel
   Director of the Office of Management and Budget:       Peter Orszag
   Chief Economic Advisor:                                                    Larry Summers
   Director, Council of Economic Advisors:                        Christina Romer
   Director Domestic Policy Council:                                   Melody Barnes
   Head of a panel of outside
   economic experts:                                                              Paul Volcker
   White House spokesman:                                                Robert Gibbs
 








 

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 2 December 2008 [articletime] => 2 December 2008 [display_order] => 1 ) [1] => Array ( [article_id] => 1000946 [headline] => 'New beginning' promised in Thanksgiving address [abstract] =>

US President-elect Barack Obama has promised Americans of a brighter future ahead, during his Thanksgiving address.

[content] =>

President-elect Barack Obama has promised "a new beginning" when he takes over the White House in January and urged Americans to work together to overcome a deepening economic crisis.

"This weekend -- with one heart, and one voice, the American people can give thanks that a new and brighter day is yet to come," Obama said in the weekly Democratic radio address, usually delivered Saturday but released early for the Thanksgiving holiday.

His political hero, president Abraham Lincoln, established the holiday "in one of the darkest years of our nation's history," 1863, during the US Civil
War, Obama said.

"This Thanksgiving also takes place at a time of great trial for our people," Obama said.

"We face an economic crisis of historic proportions."

"That's why I am committed to forging a new beginning from the moment I take office as president of the United States," the president-elect said.

Earlier this week Obama unveiled his economic team, including Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary and Larry Summers as chairman of the White House
National Economic Council, and touted his plan to create 2.5 million jobs through a vast infrastructure spending program.

"But this Thanksgiving we are reminded that the renewal of our economy won't come from policies and plans alone -- it will take the hard work,innovation, service and strength of the American people," Obama said.

"Times are tough. There are difficult months ahead. But we can renew our nation the same way that we have in the many years since Lincoln's first Thanksgiving: by coming together to overcome adversity; by reaching for - and working for - new horizons of opportunity for all Americans."

American families gather on the fourth Thursday in November for a festive dinner of turkey, potatoes and pie, seen as commemorating the first harvest
feast of English pilgrims in the new world in 1621.

Obama spent Thanksgiving at home in Chicago with his wife, his two daughters, and dozens of relatives, Michelle Obama revealed Wednesday in a
interview with ABC.

"We're going to have at least 60 people at our house, like we do every year," she said.

This year, she has excused herself from cooking, she said.

"This is the one year, don't you think -- my husband ran for president -- that I should have an out on cooking something for Thanksgiving," the
first-lady-in-waiting said.

Both Obama and the current president, George W. Bush, were closely following events in Mumbai, where Islamic militants killed 125 people across the city and grabbed foreign guests in two luxury hotels.

The State Department said three Americans were injured in the attacks while Bush expressed condolences over the attacks and offered US assistance to
India.

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 28 November 2008 [articletime] => 28 November 2008 [display_order] => 3 ) [2] => Array ( [article_id] => 1000874 [headline] => Charitable Obama keeps Santa under wraps [abstract] => US president-elect Barack Obama almost spilled the beans over Santa Claus as he celebrated Thanksgiving by helping the needy.  
[content] =>

It's tough at the top having to keep closely-guarded secrets, but president-elect Barack Obama proved Wednesday he's up to the job when he kept up the pretense about Father Christmas.

Asked what advice he had for people hunting for Christmas presents amid the economic downturn, he said he and his wife Michelle would be out shopping for their girls, Malia 10, and Sasha, seven.

And he almost let the cat out of the bag on who puts those piles of festivegoodies underneath the Christmas tree. Almost.
  
"Malia and Sasha have already put their list together," Obama told a pressconference, before swiftly adding: "It's mostly for Santa. They send their letter every year.

"But we may do some extra shopping as well," he reassured the assembledpress corps.

He added he knew many families were having to tighten their belts and cutback on Christmas cheer this year, but he said people "should understand that help is on the way.

"As they think about this Thanksgiving shopping weekend, and as they thinkabout the Christmas season that is coming up, I hope that everybody understands that -- that we are going to be able to get through these difficult times, but we're just going to have to make some good choices," Obama said.
  

Doing their bit

 

Meanhwhile, the soon-to-be first family have handed out food to the needy at a Chicago church on the day before Thanksgiving.
   
Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters shook hands and gave holiday wishes as they handed wrapped chickens to people who had been lined up for hours at the food bank.

The president-elect, dressed casually in a leather jacket, black scarf and khaki pants, was in a jovial mood, calling out "happy  thanksgiving" and telling people "you can call me Barack."

His wife and daughters wore stocking hats, winter coats and gloves as the family worked the food bank in the outdoor church courtyard.

    

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